Trump's repeated threats have 'irritated' the UK and it plans to defy him and strike a deal with Huawei
- The UK government has become 'irritated' with Trump's repeated threats to cut off shared security ties if it goes ahead with a planned deal with the Chinese telecoms company Huawei.
- Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, on Sunday warned the UK that it faces a "momentous decision" over whether to agree the deal with Huawei.
- Donald Trump has threatened to cut off its intelligence-sharing arrangement with the UK if the deal goes ahead.
- In an unprecedented move over the weekend, Three Republican senators - Tom Cotton, John Cornyn, and Marco Rubio - wrote to Britain's National Security Council urging Huawei to be banned from the 5G rollout.
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The UK government has become "irritated" with Trump's repeated threats to cut off security ties if it goes ahead with its planned 5G deal with the Chinese telecoms company Huawei.
Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, on Sunday warned Johnson that he faced a "momentous" decision on whether to freeze the telecoms giant out of new UK infrastructure amid concerns over the firm's links to China's intelligence services.
"The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G," Pompeo tweeted on Sunday night as he prepares to travel to the UK.
He endorsed a tweet from Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, who warned that allowing Huawei into such a critical part of infrastructure could have a "real cost" and undermine the UK's sovereignty.
However, the Times reported on Monday that the repeated threats from Trump and his allies have "irritated" Johnson's administration, which has been strongly advised by the UK security services that the deal would not intelligence at risk.
Johnson's administration is annoyed that the Trump administration has lobbied so publicly against the deal without suggesting any viable alternatives to it.
Asked earlier this month whether he would allow the Huawei deal to go ahead, Johnson told the BBC that "the British public deserves access to the best possible technology."
He added: "If people oppose one brand or another they have to tell us what's the alternative?"
The UK Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, indicated on BBC Radio 4 that the UK government would not be pressured into dropping the deal.
"The decision we make will be based upon our own sovereign right to choose," he said.
"It's Britain that will have to live with the consequences of that. There are risks but we will make an informed decision based on the evidence, and we will do so in an autonomous way."
Boris Johnson indicated earlier this month that will allow Huawei a "limited " role in building the UK's 5G network in order to meet his manifesto commitment to build faster broadband across the country.
Washington has repeatedly lobbied Boris Johnson's government heavily to reverse the decision. It is concerned that Huawei will act as a Trojan horse for China's spy agencies, planting "backdoors" into equipment it installs in Britain and collecting intelligence to relay back to Beijing.
Donald Trump warned Boris Johnson of serious consequences if he pushed ahead with the decision on the weekend, saying that giving the deal the go-ahead could cause a serious rift in intelligence sharing between Washington and London.
The arrangement could also have an impact on the UK-US free trade deal which Boris Johnson is eager to sign by the end of 2020.
In an unprecedented move over the weekend, Three Republican senators - Tom Cotton, John Cornyn, and Marco Rubio - also wrote to Britain's National Security Council urging Huawei to be banned from the 5G rollout.
"The company's actions show a clear record of predatory and problematic behaviour," the letter said.
They said it would be "in the best interest of the United Kingdom, the US-UK special relationship, and the health and wellbeing of a well-functioning market for 5G technologies to exclude Huawei."
The UK government will make a final decision on Huawei at a National Security Meeting on Tuesday.
